There has been proposed a disposable absorbent article such as a disposable diaper of the pants type, in which there is provided an exterior sheet of the pants type including a waist opening formed at the upper portions of a front section and a back section and leg openings formed on both sides of a crotch part between the front section and the back section, and further, there are provided an absorbent main body 21 joined onto a skin-contacting surface side of an exterior sheet 20 of the pants type and rising gathered members 22 having base ends 22a joined to both side ends of the absorbent main body 21, respectively, and lengthwise extending elastic members 23 joined to free ends 22b in an elongated state, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b).
In the absorbent main body 21, an absorbent material 26 is interposed between a liquid-permeable top sheet 24 and a liquid-impermeable back sheet 25. The back sheet 25 is joined (see marks x) to the absorbent material 26 in such a state that both side ends 25a are folded inward at the upper surface of the absorbent material 26. The top sheet 24 is joined (see marks x) at both side ends 24a thereof astride the upper surface of the absorbent material 26 and the respective upper surfaces of both side ends 25a of the back sheet 25. The base ends 22a of the rising gathered members 22 are bent outward, to be joined (see marks x) to the respective upper surfaces of both side ends 24a of the top sheet 24.
The absorbent main body 21 is attached by joining (see marks x) the entire lower surface of the back sheet 25 onto the skin-contacting surface side of the exterior sheet 20.
However, the base ends 22a of the rising gathered members 22 are bent outward, to be thus joined to the respective upper surfaces of both side ends 24a of the top sheet 24, so that rising portions 22c of the rising gathered members 22 are not raised from both most side ends 21a in a width direction of the absorbent main body 21 but raised from positions inward by a width W2′ of the base ends 22a. 
Therefore, since the surface of the absorbent main body 21 is covered with the base ends 22a by a width W2′+W2′, an absorption effective width W3′ with respect to the entire width W1′ of the absorbent main body 21 (i.e., a rising width W6′ between the right and left rising gathered members 22) is reduced, thereby reducing an effective contact area with the skin. Similarly, since a spatial width W7′ between the rising gathered members 22 also becomes small, the rising gathered member 22 is liable to fall down on the absorbent main body 21, thereby also reducing an effective contact area between the skin and the absorbent main body 21.
If this causes a diaper to be shifted, there possibly arises a problem that urine and the like are liable to laterally leak.
In addition, in the case where the disposable absorbent article is used in an overlap of a replaceable urine pad on the absorbent main body 21, the wide urine pad cannot be laid in an overlap if the width W6′ between the rising gathered members 22 is small, and further, the rising gathered members 22 fall outward if the urine pad is forcibly laid in an overlap, thereby raising a problem that urine and the like are liable to laterally leak.
In view of the above problems, there has been proposed a technique of increasing the width W6′ between the rising gathered members 22 (see JP-A 2001-276120). However, a top sheet winding-up step and the like are required, and therefore, a production process becomes complicated, thereby raising problems that the price of products is increased and the precision of products is poor.
The present invention has been completed to solve the above problems, and therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a disposable absorbent article, which can be produced at a low cost in a simple process and can effectively prevent any lateral leakage of urine and the like.